Aeroplane-wing construction.



W. S. BURGESS. AEROPLANE WING CONSTRUCTION.

lCATlON FILl l) SEPT-21.1916.

Patented N0v.'19, 1918.

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.ran eras mes WILLIAM STARLING BURGESS, 0F MARBLEHEAD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO CURTISS AEROPLANE & MOTOR CORPORATION, A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

AEROPLAN E-WIN G CONSTRUCTION.

I '0 all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM STARLING BURGESS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Marblehead, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Aeroplane-Wing Construction, of

Y which the following is a specification.

Myinvention relates in general to aeroplanes and more particularly to the construction of the wings and ailerons thereof.

A feature of my invention is the attachment of the sets of superimposed wings or planes one to the other by means of wing posts carrying suitable hinged wing post sockets which will permit of folding the sets of wings upon each other in such manner that they will occupy a small space. This point is of great importance in facilitating the storage or shipment of the aerollane wings withouttota-lly disassembling t em.

The common or usual practice is to construct the ailerons and wings separately and attach the ailerons to the rearmost lateral wing beam, the trailing edge of the wing In my being cut away for thls purpose. invention, however, I dispose the ailerons at a point somewhat aft of the usual position. To this end I utilize an auxiliar rear wing'beam which I place at a point slightly to the rear of the main rear win beam and preferably in line with the traillng edge of To this auxiliary beam I attach the ailerons by means of suitable hinges or fastening devices. The ailerons are of such section that when attached to the wing and disposed at their normal or neutral position theyso complement the frustum of the wing section as to present a perfect aerofoil in section. By

' thus shifting the position of the aileron 'the wing beam instead of parallel thereto as is the current common practice. This permits of the wings folding down one upon sp ifi ati of mm m nt. Patented same, rate. Application filed September 27, 1916. Serial No. 122,432.

the other by simply releasing one set of stay wires.

Of the drawings: Figure 1 is aplan view of a wing panel socket, a part thereof being shown in section;

Fig. 7 is a side elevation of a biplane wing assembly in its normal and folding position. In Fig. l-let the outer or aileron panel of the wing bewholly designated as 10 and the inner panel or panels be wholly designated as 11. The aileron 12 is attached by' means of hinges or other suitable fas tening devices 13 to the rear auxiliary wing beam 14. The beam 14 is built into the wing at a suitable distance aft of the main rear wing beam 15. This auxiliary beam 14 abuts the web or rib 30, Fig. 2, and is held in rigid contact therewith by means of the overlapping cap strips 31. This beam 14 serves as a means for attaching the hinges 13 and furthermore to preserve the desired strength of section required to withstand the stresses due to the action of the ailerons carried by these hinges. The main rear wing beam 15 is of uniform depth for all sections along the entire wing as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. These figures also show that at any given distance aft the mam rear wing beam 15 as along the line C-C the panel 10 is thicker than the panel 11. This is to be expected, however, since the increase in effective chord attenuates the wing section in order to preserve the aerofoil form. v

The aileron 12 is constructed as shown at 12, Fig. 2, having a leading edge 32 of the wing sections. Hence when the aileron 12 is attached to the wingrbeam l and when in its neutral position the entire section presents a practically unbroken aerofo1l which so reduces the head resistance that,

the efiiciency of the wing section at this point is materially increased. Moreover,

The two portions of the hinge or socket are attached by means of the bolt or pin 20. The axis of the connecting pin or bolt 20 is substantially perpendicular to the axis of the wing beams and permits of radial movement of the wing posts about these pivotal points in a plane substantially parallel to the lateral wing beams of the aeroplane structure.

In Fig. 6 the socket or hinge is shown seetioned along the line D-D, Fig. 5. The clips to which are attached the stay or bracing wires are designated as 21, 22 and 23. These clips or eyelets may be stamped of metal and brazed or welded to the main base of the socket or may be held in place by threading onto the bolt or pin 20.

The operation of my device is as follows: The wing 24, Fig. 4, and the wing 25 are held apart by means of the wing posts generally designated as 26 and are braced by means of the wires or cables 27 and 28. To fold the wing 24 upon the wing 25 in the direction of'the arrow 29 it is only necessary to loosen or release the stay wires 28 whereupon folding may be effected since the wing posts 26 are pivotally connected at their extremities by means of the pins or bolts 20 as detailed in Figs. 5 and 6. The upper wing 24 will then occupy the posit1on relative to wing 25 as shown in Fig. 7.

Although in disclosing the features andprinciples of my invention it has been necessary to enter into more or less detailed forms, for purposes of clarity, I do not conslder my invention to be limited thereby. Moreover, my invention will apply equally well to one, two or any plurality of planes or wings in any of several arrangements or superimposition.

What is claimed is: 1. An aeroplane win structure comprislng abody section an an aileron section, said aileron section being separately formed and having an enlarged rear beam substan- I corporated in tially alined with the trailing edge of said body section and an aileron attached thereto.

2. An aeroplane .wing comprising a body section of a cambered wing curve ending rearwardly in a sharp edge of inappreciable thickness ascompared with the body thereof, an aileron section connected therewith and terminating rearwardly in substantial alinement with said trailing edge in a beam of substantialthickness as compared with the thickness of the body of said section, together with an aileron connected to said beam.

An aeroplane wing of determinate section having front and rear wing beams toether with an auxiliary wing section having a beam of substantial size in the rear of the rear beam of the body section, the auxiliary wing section havin a similar but attenuated wing curve termlnating rearwardly in the aileron itself. 4. An aeroplane wing comprising a body section terminating rearwardly in a sharp edge of inappreciable thickness as compared with the body thereof, a trailing beam inthe body section, an auxiliary section connected with the body section and terminating rearwardly in a trailing beam of substantial thickness the thickness of the body of said section, and an, aileron connected to said beam for continuing the auxiliary section rearwardly to an edge of a thickness inappreciable as compared with the thickness of the aileron at or near its point of connection to said beam, the trailing beam of the aileron section and the trailing beam of the body section being unalined.

5. An aeroplane wing comprising a body section of determinate wing curve having front and rear wing beams, the rear wing beam of the body section being forwardly removed from its trailing edge, anaileron, and an auxiliary wing section of similar but attenuated wing curve terminating in the aileron itself,'said auxiliary wing section likewise having front and rear beams respectively substantially alined with the correspondin beams of the body section besides a third .beam of substantial thickness in the rear of the rear wing beam for the attachment of the aileron.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

WILLIAM STARLING BURGESS.

Witnesses:

H. V. BAMFORD, F. H. RUSSELL.

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